Another post on Gunpla! hehe those who dont know what is gunpla...hmm.... :/ dont know how you're gonna understand this post but oh well! It took me eternity to find time to do up this blog post! HAHAH sorry guys, i've been really busy at CHC Emerge Bible Boot camp! i had such a blast!! :D it would such a pity if one couldn't come for this!! Yeap, my next blog post will be on the bible boot camp! it's kinda weird that i am attending the bible boot camp, though i just lost my bible last sunday. xD That.... will also probably be my last post before i fly overseas for about 2 weeks! :) Will be back in time for Christmas!! ahhhh and i am still expecting for a package to arrive..so...really hope it comes in before i get flown out! now i sound like a pig getting slaughtered overseas or smth. BACK TO TOPIC.
Eternal. What is Eternal FFMH-Y101??
It is actually a transport ship used by Lacus Clyne. Background info, the eternal is a space ship, unlike the archangel or minerva that has the ability to go in and out of space (earth/space) yupp. so technically....the eternal would almost NOT get weathered....unless you consider it getting whacked by meteorites or beam sabers/cannons/explosions. That will be more toward battle-damaged..


For this kit, other than during the compulsory painting as it only comes in a basic ugly pink and white (they are moulded in these colours as a better base for painting lolol) I also went on to do weathering. I didnt do panel linings because the panel marker ink sticks very well to the citadel paint that i use. Citadel paint is actually not from gunpla, they are from warhammer, but the colours are nice at times! :) for this model kit, i used HORROR PINK from Citadel. I actually began to use such paints because i am using citadel paints for my nerf guns xD
This is how horror pink looks like, under different lightings, it looks really different, but yeah this is the right colour! :) When i was doing this model kit, all i had in mind was weathering. Oh btw, even the stand is painted. i did a simple matt black for it. :) Weathered and battle worn in a sense whereby you have mechanics coming in to patch up the paintwork,etc etc. So based on this idea, that is how i went about doing the paint scheme, and quite successfully achieved that look, of a not very even look throughout as if you really observe very closely, you can see like the after effect of such paintworks in real life, whereby the colour tone is not quite the same, along with the soot and paint overlapping each other :)
This model kit took me approximately a month plus to complete, but the awesome thing is that i worked on this in camp! Which also does explain on why i took so long. Sometimes, it gets boring in camp and people kill time by playing pokemon. I simply bring my model kits into camp and do them instead, since model kits take up so much time to complete!!
I took these photos at a later date, which really showcases the chips off, here and there along the body of the spacecraft. kinda bad focus, my bad, i didnt use my tripod...hehe lazy. Left hand = hold model kit. Right hand = hold camera. I used aperture priority for my camera, hence the shutter speed was VERY VERY slow. :/ failed a lot of shots.






A few difference angles, to show the difference here and there. yes i did do weathering for the wings too, although they didnt turn out exactly how i wanted them to. the panel linings were achieved in a different way. Instead of coming in with a marker and drawing out the lines, i used a cosmetic powder to have that effect, giving it a certain depth :) I was especially happy with how the engine panel lining turned out :) you can see mini chip-offs on the wings too!



 Could it have been done better? yes i think so, with more variations of paint colours. I was pretty limited with my budget, which explains only the three different colours i used. Really bad camera focus :/ sobs. It's kinda retarded that i am whining so much over me being so lazy to whip out my tripod, even though it is sitting behind me in a pile of bags. #MingYangLogic
The painting process saw me fixing some parts together first, whilst leaving most of it unfixed, so that after painting the relevant pieces, then did i piece it together. This also went for the weathering process, hence there were 2 things in my mind that i had to juggle with, before ensuring that "YES, these two parts can be fixed together". That kinda thing. Amazingly, the paint dries extremely fast, especially in an air conditioned room xD though it isnt advisable to do it in an enclosed room. When painting/weathering, i played around with the cosmetic powder for rust, soot and dirt or something along those lines lolol. And through that, i managed to achieve the whole look! different tools were also used to apply the powder so as to get the required look :) It was really fun to do dry brushing, making certain parts chipped off, and then ALSO weathering SOME chipped off portions to show that there are old.new damages to the ship. So this allows the ship to really come to life, because you are like creating a timeline through the painting process.

Here is how the timeline goes,
1. Getting damaged since it goes to war,
2. Goes back to base for repairs and touch up paintwork,
3. Goes back out, obviously more damages, paintwork has to be redone
4. In the midst of all of these, the engines which have been going on fine have begun to show signs of usage by beginning to rust on the surface.
Also, gotta consider which parts to fit together first. -.- That's what delayed the entire process! so you cant just weather all at once! super annoying. I also blackened the tip of the gun with soot :) though they use beam weapons in gundam seed....fail, but just for the effects :)


 Overall, this build was a pretty fun one for me, more importantly i got to experiment with different techniques, and yeah they turned out pretty sweet! This kit was fully handpainted by me, other than the display stand which was simply spray painted black. I kept the base of it as the original pink, so that there is a certain reference point of the original colour! On second thoughts, i would run a stream of painter's tape through half the stand so i can keep that part original pink. I was half scratching my head on how i would want to achieve that damaged-but-painted-over look for the model kit, because i didnt want the paint coat to be too thick too, which destroys the panel linings and make the whole kit look shoddy. I pretty much had to achieve that balance, whilst keeping in mind to add the weathering powder here and there to have a more realistic feel :)

Even though EX models, this series that produces the archangel, minerva, etc etc, are very pricey at an average of $75 for a kit that cuddles into your palm, its quite a dangerous thing to play with. As in, instead of using a $30 HG gundam to paint and stuff, if anything crops up or what, it isnt as bad as wasting a $75 EX model. it literally is pretty EXpensive huh! Kinda sad that the photos aren't able to fully paint the extensiveness of the weathering job that i did on the model kit but oh well :/ now all it needs is a box! my shelf has ran out of space to put model kits D:
 METEOR
for those gundam fans.
yes it's removable if you're wondering.

no its not a razer keyboard.